What do house buyers really look at?

Wed 9 Aug 2017

Modern technology is a wonderful thing. It creates ever more opportunities for researchers to study human nature, and has played a key role in helping companies assess what potential buyers look at when viewing a property.

Using special glasses that track eye movements, Anglian Home Improvements carried out a study on what potential house buyers look at as they walk through a property.

Mess

A quarter of people had their attention firmly on areas that were untidy or cluttered. So the obvious point to make is to tidy up properly before your viewers are due to arrive!

Who lives in a house like this?

The current occupants of the house in the study attracted a lot of attention. The technology picked up on 32% of women and 22% of men looking at the photos, furniture and all the clues that give an overall picture of the people who live there. The study’s authors saw this as a sign that the potential buyers were looking at the property as a home, which is more likely to lead them to imagine themselves living there. Always a good selling point! So from a seller’s point of view, it’s a good idea to make sure there are enough homely touches to give the place a welcoming and friendly feel.

Window gazing

The main focus of around 17% of buyers was out of the window, and they were not only looking at the garden but also neighbouring properties. While you can’t do anything about how close the neighbours are or what they do with their own houses, you can at least make your garden look as good as possible. If necessary, invest in some nice pots, plant whatever you can find in flower at the garden centre and place them outside the windows where you can be certain they will be seen.

Keep it clean

Last year, Vileda conducted a similar exercise. They discovered that the first thing 95% of people did was to go to the window and look out – so in addition to the pots and flowers, make sure there are no dirty smudges on the glass! This study echoed the AHI one about clutter, adding that 80% of people were interested in the storage areas and checked to see how much space there was inside the cupboards. In addition, they discovered that 70% of people looked upwards in order to check the height of the ceilings, so make sure there are no spiders’ webs hanging down for all to see (or spiders come to that).

So the best way of getting your house ready for viewings is to think about what your prospective buyers will be looking for. The Home Owners Alliance has published a handy list of tips for buyers on what they need to look out for and the type questions they need to ask – so you can pre-empt any problems by dealing with them before putting your property on the market.

And once you’re ready to put your Radlett or Borehamwood property on the market, contact us to help you sell it.